# Chapter 5

Michael came inside. His Dad was laying in the bed, half awake, half asleep. His eyes were empty as he looked into nothingness. Michael sat beside him and said - "Dad... Dad, can you hear me? I met a girl.". Dad's eyes moved. He looked away from Michael as if being afraid of something. Then he closed his eyes and gripped the pillow even tighter.

Michael silently leaved his room and went to his own. He was passing the hallway when he stopped for a few moments and looked at something. It was a dusty printed picture on a wall. It was a photograph of Molly. The girl that once was. The girl that Alice reminded him of. A bit further was an even older print. At first it was surrounded by dust and haze. But a slight blow of air reveal the image. It was the photograph of Michael's mother. He looked at them for a few moments and continued to his room.

Michael's room was dark. He touched his computer and it illuminated the room. Suddenly the mess was visible. Michael had boxes filled with mechanical toys that he used once to make. All of them were unique and done by hand. But covered in dust and packed in a pile of mess taking a large portion of his room. Other areas were filled with empty food packages and drink cans. Usually the green cans of Vodka Plus. But sometimes other cans also made their way into Michael's room. Michael was looking at the holograph that was projected by the computer. It was a short looping recording of Alice laughing while looking at the drunk monkey. 

Michael went out of his room carrying a big pile of various clothes. He inserted them into a washing machine and it started working. Then he went into the kitchen. He took a package with small bags in it and two bowls. He emptied the contents of one bag into one bowl and the second into the other. He put the bowls under a pipe and filled them with hot water. He stirred both of them and a soup was made. Then he opened the refrigerator. It was a rather new machine comparing to the rest of the house. He took out a few leafs of lettuce. In the refrigerator there was a special pocket area into which Michael put the lettuce. It was transparent, so Michael could see it. First the refrigerator washed it thoroughly. Then using a very precise laser it started cutting the lettuce into peaces. Michael waited with his hand on a red button. When he saw that the lettuce was cut enough he pressed it and the vegetable came out of the other end in a special rectangle bowl.

He did it with multiple vegetables. And put them all into a separate bowl. He poured into the salad a bit of oil and threw in it a bit of salt. Then he took out of the refrigerator a few cans of Vodka Plus and went with all this food into Dad's room. There was a special table besides his bed. This is where Michael put the food. "Dad... Dad, food!" - said Michael. Dad un-gripped the pillow - "Who is she?".

Michael smiled - "You will meet her one day. I hope you will like her.". Dad took a spoon and sipped a bit of the soup - "What's her name?". Michael blushed. He opened a can of Vodka Plus - "Alice..." - and drunk a very big sip from the can.

Michael was in his room as a voice came saying - "Drunken Monkey? Are you online?". "Yes..." - said Michael. It was an avatar by the name of Mister Toilet talking to him. His visual representation was of an animated character sitting on a toilet. As the was voice spoke, it looked like the character said it. "Have you seen the commit by Billy Bull?" - said Mister Toilet. Michael pushed himself upward into a more comfortable sitting position - "What repository?". "Ah..." - said Toilet - "...Billy Bull's fork of the mega-structure navigator. He managed to optimize it thirty seven something percent. I'm talking about the path finding.". Michael opened some icon and a array of rectangles appeared in-front of him. All connected with lines. They had various data points for input and output. Michael scrolled through the net of rectangles until he found a one titled "Navigation path finder" and he opened it with his fingers.

In front of him appeared source code. It was not written on any known today programming language, but it resembled the syntax of python a bit. In the beginning of the file there was a rather peculiar comment. It said "For those parts of the mega-structures that still or might enforce copyright, the following document is under the terms of the MNPL license 32.9 or any later version.". MNPL or Mega-Net Public License was a legal document. It was not needed in a strict sense. Since there was no copyright in the mega-structures. But just in-case a system like copyright might return, this document was protecting the underlying source code from being copyright-able.

While Michael looked at the code he said - "What's with this guy Neon? Have you found how to talk to him?".

"He is a Cracker, Monkey, I don't think it's a good idea."

"But do you have his account?"

"I have this one."

A string of rumbled text appeared in Michael's personal vision. Michael smiled "Thanks Toilet." And he pushed on the text. For a few moments Michael felt a bit nervous. He even doubted the whole idea of calling this cracker in the first place. But suddenly a character full of neon lines appeared in Michael's room.

"Who's that I'm speaking to?" - said Neon. "It's Drunken Monkey and Mister Toilet. I heard you can find people. How much do take for a such a thing?" - said Michael. Toilet's character looked at Michael with a gaze of madness. "Are you out of your mind, Monkey, he is a serious motherfucker." - said Toilet. Michael pushed something and Toilet disappeared. "Michael..." started Neon, which made Michael very uncomfortable. Neon already knew his name. "...it depends. If you have the account code, it will be very simple. Unless of course, the motherfucker is good. You for example, left the name 'Michael' on a commit for the V+ brewery machine software six months ago."

"I'm not very smart."

"You are not, but the person that you are looking for might be. What's his account?"

"I don't have it."

"Well, do I have anything that I can use to find that person you are looking for?"

Michael leaned forward, closer to the Neon's avatar, while opening another Vodka Plus can. He continued very quietly - "This man was a driver of the car that made an accident five years ago. He made me wear this stupid spine device. And he killed my sister Molly."

Neon's character looked up in thoughts - "Well, this is not the kind of work that will be easy to do. I think a work of such magnitude will cost something like ...".

"Wait!" - interrupted Michael, while his hands shacked from nerves - "What if I told you that you can give it to me without payment?". Neon got confused - "What do you mean?". Michael lowered his eyelids - "Perhaps I would say that there is a possibility that somebody like you can make a whole lot more money, by not charging me. Perhaps *this*, if properly promoted, can make it sound like you, Neon, is such a good deal to everybody else...".

Neon's character was gone. Michael was breathing hard for a few moments and then his fist hit the table violently. He was not able to argue with Neon. For a moment he thought that it was impossible to convince a cracker like Neon in making anything without being payed. But then he remembered how impossible it was prove that woman that her dress was a different color. But still Alice did it. He felt like he needs Johnathan Molly, now more than ever.
